Several dozen people participated in a protest organized by CIL Sofia in front of the Bulgarian National Assembly inSofia. At the event there were 4 cages - one big enough to fit 5 or 6 people and 3 smaller cages for one or two persons. 

Aglaia Katsigianni from Drama, Greece was the dear guest of CIL Sofia for the European day of protests for equal rights for disabled people. Katsigianni represents the Paraplegic Association of Drama which is an affiliated member of ENIL. The point of the study visit was to exchange experiences and knowledge of Independent Living between Greece and Bulgaria. Katsigianni participated in the protest organized by CIL Sofia and took part in a meeting with disability activists. She was one of those who volunteered to sit in the cages at the protest in order to symbolize how Bulgarian disability policies keep disabled people caged either in their own homes or within institutions.   

In 2010 Peter Kichashki, who was to go on to become ENIL's South Regional Coordinator, submitted a complaint to the Bulgarian Committee for Protection Against Discrimination. His protest concerned a clause in the Bulgarian Family Code that had the potential to prevent people born disabled from getting married. The text stated that if there was the possibility that the marriage would produce disabled children, then it could legally be annulled by a public prosecutor.  

Extract of the invitation letter:

'Dear friends,

Over the last few years diverse technological tools have been developed which can offer valuable help for people with autism. The attraction that computers and visual information offer, their predictability and sequential nature, the possibility of customizing the applications adapting them to individual needs... open a wide range of possibilities of working with aspects such as; improvement in communication, social abilities, the structuring of the tasks, adapted leisure time, etc.

If you want to get to know the present and future of the innovating technologies in autism, take advantage by signing on early for the First International Conference on New Technologies for People with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ITASD) which takes place in Valencia (Spain), from the 6 to the 8 of July 2012....'

May 5th, more than 300 people in Stockholm gathered in a demonstration against cuts in personal assistance.

 There were speeches, singing and poetry reading from the stage and there were also a cage with some users of personal assistance - to clarify what happens when you lose all or part of your personal assistance hours: your home becomes a prison, or worse, you are being forced to live in institutions.